Blame game: Activision says MTV responsible for guitar snafu

by Andrew Yoon { Dec 14th 2007 at 11:33AM }

Don't you love it when companies play the blame game? Harmonix claimed that Activision was actively blocking the release of a guitar compatability patch, which will allow Guitar Hero and Rock Band guitars to work in harmony. However, Activision isn't ready to take responsibility, saying that it is actually Harmonix and MTV Games that's currently responsible for the guitar "snafu." In an official statement made to GameDaily, the company states:

"The recent announcement by MTV Games/Viacom's Harmonix division that Activision is blocking Sony from releasing a patch and their plea to enable Rock Band software to work with Guitar Hero hardware paints a very misleading picture.

In fact, Harmonix and its parent company MTV Games/Viacom recently declined Activision's offer to reach an agreement that would allow the use of Guitar Hero guitar controllers with Rock Band. We have been and remain open to discussions with Harmonix and MTV Games/Viacom about the use of our technology in Rock Band. Unfortunately for Rock Band users, in this case Harmonix and MTV Games/Viacom are unwilling to discuss an agreement with Activision."

So who's telling the truth and who's lying? Stay tuned for more.

Tags: activision, guitar, guitar-hero, harmonix, mtv-games, rock-band

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Dave @ Dec 14th 2007 11:48AM

"reach an agreement" sounds basically like "pay us to enable the usage of a controller." Then watch us make even more money as people buy our guitar and game because it's the only one they can get right now and at least they get a game too. Activision is the stupid.

DavidPerlik @ Dec 14th 2007 12:07PM

This.

You and I, sir, think alike.

scratch @ Dec 14th 2007 3:27PM

that's what I was going to say too... looks like we all have about the same opinion of Activision. Long live Harmonix! I just wish Amplitude played without the occasional stutter on my ps3 =(

Innocent Bystander @ Dec 14th 2007 12:12PM

Nobody is lying. Activision is not willing to enable cross platform gameplay with their equipment until an agreement is in place but the other guys are fishing for compatibility without an agreement. AV is blocking the compatibility until the contract is signed (this happens to be commonplace in business...)

In fact Harmonix is not telling the whole story here...

IB

scratch @ Dec 14th 2007 3:31PM

but really it is none of activision's business. If I want to make a patch to my own intellectual property that makes it compatible with hardware available on the market, there is no legal reason then can stop me. once you purchase the hardware, you are allowed to do almost anything you want with it.

Riley Freeman @ Dec 14th 2007 12:12PM

exactly. not a blame game at all. "we want money" harmonix " we dont want to pay" . customers. "this sux" more bad publicity sort of for the ps3. harmonix should either pay or make their own guitar (if they dont already have one) i dont follow these music games

red996 @ Dec 14th 2007 12:29PM

All this is doing is me not buying Guitar Hero 3. Is not worth it. GH3 is a fraction of the game Rockband is.

And with the great offerings of downloads from PSN every week soon we will have all the songs from the original Guitar Heroes plus GH3, Plus mostly original tracks.

HedonismBot @ Dec 14th 2007 1:35PM

1/3 of the game, to be precise...

Dehshizknight @ Dec 14th 2007 10:43PM

Actually 1/4 (gotta remember the 4th bass player).

finelicker @ Dec 14th 2007 2:18PM

Well, Harmonix developed the patch to make it work, so they did their part as far as I'm concerned. Activision are just money grabbing.

Jeremy @ Dec 14th 2007 2:27PM

I agree that there is no lying going on here. AV is simply trying to extort HMX, and just neglected to put that "detail" in their statement.

Tim @ Dec 14th 2007 6:34PM

Why has this not been an issue for the 360? Anyone like to tell me that?

OTAM @ Dec 14th 2007 11:30PM

The 360 version just happened to work out of the box basically and I really don't think Activision has the balls to make a patch to block the guitars from playing nice (unless they have some sort of public suicide in mind).

Phizzy @ Dec 16th 2007 2:20AM

I wonder if this will be a problem with the other localisations of Rock Band, as I assume they haven't started producing the actual discs yet... So, do you think they can block built in compatibility on the game discs the same way they're blocking this compatibility patch?